


Changes

by LibraryMage



Series: Vampire AU [2]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-26 02:14:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20036203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LibraryMage/pseuds/LibraryMage
Summary: Two months after being bitten, Ezra is still adjusting to the changes in his life.





	Changes

Ezra sat at the kitchen table, his feet swinging above the floor as he carefully wrote down the answer to the problem in the math workbook that was open in front of him. Mom and Dad had pulled him out of school after he’d been bitten, saying it was safer if he was homeschooled from now on. Safe from the woman who’d bitten him or safe from humans, Ezra wasn’t sure. All he knew was that it was supposed to be safe here.

That wasn’t the only thing that had changed. They’d moved just days after Ezra had come home, renting out a small house on the other side of the city until Mom and Dad could sell the old house and they could move farther away. Ezra wasn’t allowed outside alone anymore, and he could rarely go out in the daytime. His parents never thought he was listening, but he always heard them when they were talking about where they could go that was safe, how to handle the police officers asking questions about the report they’d abruptly withdrawn after he’d come home, how they could keep getting blood for him without anyone finding out. No matter how much Mom and Dad insisted that it wasn’t, Ezra couldn’t help but feel like this was all his fault. Their lives wouldn’t be changing so much if he hadn’t been bitten in the first place.

Ezra set down his pencil, folding his arms on the table and resting his head down on them. As tears pricked at his eyes, he bit down on his lower lip only to cry out as one of his fangs pierced the skin. He straightened up, rubbing the back of his hand across his eyes. Supposedly, his fangs could be retracted, but he was still so bad at doing it. Mom and Dad told him he didn’t have to hide them in the house, but he hated the feeling of them in his mouth, like a constant reminder of what had happened to him.

Ezra sniffled quietly before pressing the heels of his hands over his eyes. He was so tired of crying. He’d been doing it so much in the past two months, and it always made him feel empty afterwards. He just wanted to be able to focus on his schoolwork, or go play outside, like a normal kid. But it was early afternoon and the sun was high in the sky. His parents had assured him that sunlight wouldn’t kill him, but being out in it still hurt.

When he heard Mom’s familiar footsteps approaching the kitchen, Ezra wiped his eyes again, wanting to make sure all his tears were gone. If she knew he’d been crying, she would try to make it better, and that was just as likely to make him feel more guilty as it was to help. As Mom walked into the room, Ezra forced a smile onto his face and kicked his heels excitedly against his chair.

“Mom!” he said, pushing his workbook toward her. “Look!”

“Is that the fourth grade one already?” she asked as she leaned in to look at the book. Ezra nodded, his smile feeling more genuine by the second. He’d only been in third grade when he’d stopped going to school, and he knew Mom would be proud of him for working so far ahead, and thinking about it made him feel almost normal.

“We should have started homeschooling you years ago,” Mom said, gently ruffling his hair.

In spite of his attempts to look on the bright side of things, Ezra’s face fell. Seeing the change, Mom moved her hand to his shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“I just meant I’m proud of you,” she said.

“I wish I could still go to school,” Ezra said, shrugging her hand off of his shoulder.

“I know,” Mom said, sliding into the chair next to him. “I wish you could, too. It just –”

“It’s not safe,” Ezra said. “I know.”

He stared blankly down at the workbook, not wanting to look at her, though he wasn’t sure why. He carefully chewed on the inside of his lower lip with his normal teeth for a moment before he spoke again.

“Not safe for me, or for them?” he asked.

“It’s not safe for _you_,” Mom said. “I know you wouldn’t hurt anyone. But there are people who would hurt you if they knew what you are.”

“Why?” Ezra asked, tears pricking at his eyes again. “I didn’t do anything wrong!”

He wiped his hand across his eyes yet again. It just wasn’t fair. He hadn’t asked for this to happen. All he’d done was try to get to school one morning and one person had managed to tear his entire life apart for it.

“You didn’t,” Mom said. “Nothing that happened was your fault.”

Ezra scooted to the edge of the chair and pressed himself against his mom’s side, leaning his head against her shoulder. He closed his eyes for a second as he felt her hand on his head, gently stroking his hair. For just a few seconds, it felt like just a normal day, like nothing had happened.

But those few seconds ended too quickly, and Ezra was once again hit by the knowledge that it _had_ happened. Everything was different now, all because that woman had followed him when he left the house that morning.

“Mom,” he said, a tremor in his voice. “What if I _do_ hurt someone?”

“I don’t think you will, Ezra,” she said. “I know you don’t want to.”

“But what if I do?” Ezra asked. He sniffed, not even trying to stop the tears from forming in his eyes anymore. “Would – would you and Dad still love me if I bit someone?”

“Of course we would, neshama,” Mom said, her arms sliding around him and holding him tightly. “You’re our baby and we’ll always love you, no matter what you do.”

Ezra wiggled out of his mom’s embrace, hugging his arms around himself as he stared blankly down at the edge of the table.

“Ezra,” Mom said gently. “Where’s this coming from?”

Ezra shrugged.

“I just – the one who bit me,” he said, “I never did anything to her. She just decided to bite me for no reason. What if I – what if I do it, too? What if she did it because she’s…because of what we are?”

“_What_ you are doesn’t matter,” Mom said. “_Who_ you are does. She bit you because she wanted to hurt you. You don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“You don’t know that’s why she did it,” Ezra said. “She didn't explain it. She barely talked to me before she – she…”

His voice broke off with a quiet sob as he hugged his arms tighter around himself. It had been two months now, and it was still so hard for him to say what had happened out loud.

“I’m scared, Mom,” Ezra said. “I – I don’t want to be this. I just want to go to school and go outside and be _normal_.”

“I know,” Mom said. “And I am so, so sorry that you can't. This never should have happened to you, Ezra.”

Silence fell between them as Ezra kicked his heels against his chair. He hated this. He hated it so much, and more than anything else, he hated the person who’d done this to him. He hadn’t seen her face, but he would never forget that voice, and the way she’d said his name. Her voice was always echoing in his head, warning him not to scream. Whenever he tried to sleep, he could feel her hand on his face, tilting his head back before she sunk her fangs into his neck.

“Why don’t we forget about school for now?” Mom said, her voice jolting Ezra out of his thoughts as she closed his workbook. “We can watch a movie. Anything you want. Even PG-13.”

A tiny smile twitched across Ezra’s face even though he wasn’t feeling any better.

“Nothing with vampires in it,” he said.

“No vampires,” Mom said. “Promise.”


End file.
